page-turner
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of page-turner
First recorded in 1970–75
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
From time to time I’ll make an exception and settle into a relative page-turner: nothing with cliffhangers or lots of hand-to-hand combat, mind you, but with a brisker narrative pace.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
The judges said: "A novel about class ascension and a man who is remarkably detached from his desires, and a disquisition on the art of being alive. It is also an absolute page-turner."
From BBC • Sep. 23, 2025
The creeping horror at the center of Ishiguro’s science fiction is surrounded by the tensions of growing up in this literary page-turner.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2025
Indeed, even egregious perpetuation of the status quo is rarely a page-turner.
From Slate • Jul. 22, 2024
Tim O’Reilly Publisher and Founder, O’Reilly and Associates Doctorow has created a rich and exciting vision of the future, and then wrote a page-turner of a story in it.
From Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Doctorow, Cory
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.